The present disclosure relates to multi-projectile toy guns. The disclosure more particularly, although not exclusively, relates to toy guns in which air is used to propel a succession of soft projectiles.
It is known to propel soft projectiles from toy guns using air as the propellant. In some toy guns, air is rapidly compressed behind a projectile to force the projectile to fire from the toy gun. For some toy guns, a method is required to prime the gun prior to pulling a trigger to cause firing. Priming might be by pump-action to load a piston against a compression spring for example. The trigger would release the piston so as to move rapidly forward—compressing air behind the projectile. In other toy guns, there is no separate priming action. Instead, two handles are provided for grasping by separate hands. One handle is fixed with respect to the body of the gun whereas the other is fixed with respect to a piston. The two handles are reciprocated toward and away from each other and during the forward stroke air is compressed behind the projectile to cause it to be ejected.
In multi-projectile toy guns of the type described above, some means is required to present the projectiles in succession to the firing position. For example, a barrel, magazine or “ammunition chain” might be loaded with projectiles. After one projectile is fired, a cylinder or ammunition chain must be advanced one position. With a gravity-feed magazine extending above the firing position, the next projectile might simply fall into position, but some means of mechanically advancing projectiles in a side or bottom-mounted magazine would be required.
Toy guns with projectile advancing mechanisms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,186,156 and 5,680,853 but each of these has a complex mechanism to cause advancement of the projectiles during a cocking operation of the toy gun. Moreover, complex systems of levers, ratchets and pawls are designed to cause the advancing mechanism to function during a reverse stroke of a plunger and then some further means is required to maintain alignment of the parts during the firing stroke. This is unnecessarily complex and expensive to manufacture.